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GRAND RAPIDS — Private equity firm Auxo Investment Partners has entered the railroad business with the acquisition of maintenance company Genesis Rail Services LLC. The Grand Rapids-based Auxo Investment Partners acquired a majority stake in the Bluefield, W. Va.-, and Roanoke, Va.-based Genesis Rail Services. The deal comes amid expectations for strong rail industry growth in the coming years from restocking low inventories that resulted from pandemic-related supply chain disruptions, as well as a driver shortage in the trucking industry. The resulting increase in rail traffic will mean increased maintenance of rail lines and their right of ways. The 12-year-old company provides maintenance, mechanical and construction services for industrial railroads across the U.S. Genesis Rail Services’ clients are Kansas City Southern, Norfolk Southern, Canadian National, Amtrak and Florida East Coast Railway. “We like a lot of dynamics here and just the long-term growth potential. Just the fact that this type of work within the railroad business is chronic maintenance that has to be done year in and year out: We like that dynamic of the type of work Genesis does,” said Jeff Helminski, Auxo’s co-founder and managing partner.

Grand Rapids private equity firm Auxo Investment Partners has acquired Altus Industries Inc., a Walker-based designer and producer of workstations for the health care industry. The deal includes Spectrum Health as a strategic partner for Altus Industries. Spectrum Health, which made the investment through Auxo, is one of the largest customers for the company’s mobile medical carts, mobile and wall-mounted workstations, and accessories that are used in patient rooms, surgical centers and continuing care, radiology and emergency departments.

The team at Grand Rapids-based private equity firm Auxo Investment Partners has a saying that every deal has to die once before it closes. “That tends to be the way these things work — you often come across things that look like they could be deal killers and you just have to find a way to work through them,” said Jeff Helminski, managing partner of Auxo, which invests in growing founder- and family-owned industrial, manufacturing and business-services companies. Helminski and his team at Auxo encountered plenty of those instances in its 2020 acquisition of Indianapolis-based Precision Parts Group Inc. Precision Parts Group’s two divisions included Paramount Tube, which manufactures highly engineered and custom small diameter spiral-wound and extruded tubular products, and Euclid Medical Products, which manufacturers single- and multi-dose pharmaceutical packing systems.

Spectrum Health Ventures is joining as a strategic partner in the acquisition of one of its suppliers, Altus Industries. Grand Rapids-based private equity firm Auxo Investment Partners said Tuesday that it acquired Altus Industries, a Walker-based designer, manufacturer, assembler and marketer of medical, point-of-care workstations used across the health care industry. As part of the deal, Spectrum Health Ventures, one of Altus’s larger customers, will join as a strategic partner in the transaction. Financial terms were not disclosed. Serving the health care sector, Altus’s product portfolio includes powered and nonpowered mobile technology workstations (also known as workstations on wheels, medical mobile carts or mobility workstations) and wall-mounted workstations, along with related accessories.

Mergers and acquisitions should remain strong through 2021 — driven by several factors affecting deal flow — although finding a good deal may come with a high price for buyers. Participants in a recent MiBiz M&A roundtable discussion say they expect valuations to stay high for the foreseeable future — perhaps unreasonably so at times — as buyers compete for good deals in a robust market. A massive capital overhang, low interest rates, and greater competition among buyers in the market drove up high valuations in 2020. Buyers ranged from strategic corporate acquirers seeking to drive growth or add to platform companies, to private equity investors and family offices. Lower deal flow after the U.S. economy fell into recession in the COVID-19 pandemic also contributed to increasing valuations that are expected to remain elevated even as activity picks up.

A local private equity firm acquired a Chicago-area manufacturer of corrugated steel rule dies.

Grand Rapids-based Auxo Investment Partners said it acquired Elmhurst, Illinois-based GC Dies.

"We're excited to bring GC Dies into our expanding platform and see great potential to expand its customer footprint," said Jeff Helminski, a managing partner with Auxo. "We believe that adding a corrugate offering further bolsters our efforts to help shape the products that touch the lives of people - everything from heart valves and ventilator tubes to cereal boxes, gaskets and surgical masks."

Auxo Managing Partner Jack Kolodny added the acquisition fits nicely into the growing Auxo Die Holdings platform.

"When we considered the full impact of this acquisition, it was obvious that adding GC Dies would make us even more competitive in the Midwest marketplace and enhance our overall platform, which was already the broadest selection of tooling for the converting industry," Kolodny said.